As the 16th edition of m:brane (15-17 March) gets ready to lift off, we touched base with the head of the Malmö-based co-production forum for young audiences’ media content, Lennart Ström, who has some fresh initiatives up his sleeve, in both digital and “IRL” form. For more information on this year’s event, please click here.

Cineuropa: This year’s edition is titled “m:brane – A Hybrid Experience”. Can you elaborate on the journey so far?
Lennart Ström: Our fully digital forum in 2021 turned out to have record attendance levels; we were more or less on the air for four days, non-stop. For 2022, we decided on a hybrid version with an expected physical attendance of about 60% and the rest online. As for the pandemic, we have tentatively regarded it as at least under reasonable control. Planning had gone smoothly until Omicron reared its ugly head and threatened the order of things. Then, ever so swiftly, all of the restrictions were lifted, and suddenly “everyone” wanted to come. It’s been a somewhat wheels-within-wheels activity getting everything right, but we’re both hopeful and encouraged by the great interest being shown. And despite all of these interesting and stimulating digital solutions, there’s nothing like “IRL” encounters. It’s the heart of our forum, turning it into an inspiring greenhouse where everyone is in the same creative bubble without any disruptive side activities for three full days. In short: highly effective and highly pleasurable.

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Can you share some of the programme highlights for this year?
A sizeable initiative is the continuation of the science themes we introduced last year. We have dubbed it “m:brane Learning – The Non Didactic Universe”, and it delves deep into various aspects of the understanding of science with the aim of engaging the public. We believe that when scientists and visual content makers collaborate, content of a high quality can be created. This can benefit not only the involved partner, as such, but also the European democratic societies we live in, as it will evoke critical thinking, reflective mindsets and cognitive stimulation. But often, this has to be done with very limited access to funding, know-how, networks and audience/segment insight, which creates a risk that the information will not reach the public. And as we focus on young audiences – the very ones who will inherit and take over this world – the loss of knowledge transfer can, in the worst-case scenario, cause damage. These are some of the matters we wish to explore and hopefully help to remedy, greatly aided by our inspirational speakers and our panel discussions.

These last few weeks, we’ve seen some unsettling developments in Europe with the increasingly serious situation in Ukraine. How has this affected your activities?
It’s a very dark shadow that’s being cast over all of us. Through the years, we’ve personally worked closely with several projects from Ukrainian filmmakers whom we’re naturally now concerned about these days. We feel that this year, it’s especially important to meet, to gain energy from the forum and to hope, in order to interact and collaborate in the democratic part of the world.